13 weeks, how many times should she wake? (long)

[cwolff]

I don't know what I should be doing.  My DD goes to bed between 7 & 7:30pm, and usually eats her last meal around six pm.  She eats during the day between 4 & 6 oz.  More like 4, but towards the evening she starts eating more.  And each night of wakings is different.  Last night, I put her to bed, and she was restless and spit the paci out several times, so I decided to try feeding her around 8pm.  She didn't take much from her 6pm feeding.  She ate 3oz and fell back asleep.  Next, she woke at 1am, and again took 3oz.  Finally she woke around 5:30am, and I tried to hold her off with the paci but ended up feeding her at 6am.  Then she only took again around 3oz.  What I'd like to know is:

#1. Are her nightwakings habitual?  Or is 3oz a good amount to be taking when waking hungry in the night?

#2 I tried the dreamfeed a while back, and it didn't seem to do much for the night wakings.  But I would like to do a dreamfeed around 11pm, I'm just afraid that if she wakes 2 more times I've defeated the purpose.  And how much should she be taking for the dreamfeed?  She will usually suck until she falls asleep, 3oz, and then no matter what I can't get her to take any more.

I really don't know what I should be expecting as far as night sleep from her right now.  She's 12 1/2 pounds, and again, the only time she seemed ravenous was this morning and she still didn't start eating much till late morning.

So if this is habitual, how come it's happening at different times of the night?  The night before, it was 2:30am, and the night before different too?  And how do I drop this feeding if the pacifier doesn't cut it for her?

[dkjokisch]

I saw you never got a response to your post, and obviously, your lo isn't 13wks anymore.  Are the night wakings still an issue?

With dd, she stopped waking to eat at about 3.5mos.

[cwolff]

Hey thanks for responding.  Now she's 16 weeks, and still wakes once after the DF.  She's actually been kind of waking up for the DF too.  She seems to consistently wake up once for food in the night, but she will also wake up it seems when she wiggles out of her swaddle.  I don't think she actually wakes for her paci, but I've tried giving it to her in the early morning to see if she goes back to sleep.  Usually she doesn't.  I wish she'd just wake to eat at 3 and sleep till 7.  But it's wake at 3, then wake at 5:30 or so for whatever reason.  Sometimes I can get her back to sleep, but she never puts herself back to sleep.  Sooo, I don't know what to do.  She doesn't eat enough during the day, I know, she usually will only take 4 oz every 3-4 hours.  I'm trying hard to get her on 4 hr EASY, but so far it's so so.  Thanks again for responding.

[GG]

What time does she go to sleep every night?

I would suggest not bothering with the paci (she shouldn't get used to it anyway, so don't bother offering to her at this point).  When she wakes at 5:30 AM, is she crying or cooing?  If crying, then she's still tired and you'll have to do some PU/PD to get her back to sleep (if it's this case, I highly recommend you going to bed early because you WILL be tired and will probably resort to accidental parenting at that time in the morning - take it from someone who knows! ;-)).

If she's cooing, just let her alone in her crib.  She will let you know when she needs you to intervene.  She may just go back to sleep on her own.  If not, PU/PD shen she cries.

Not sure what to say about the 4 oz. feeds.  How long do you try to feed her?  Is she just distracted?  Have you tried feeding in the dark?  How about giving her some extra time to settle down and take some more?

[dkjokisch]

If you having trouble getting her to eat more than 4oz at a feeding, you might be better off keeping her on a 3-hour schedule for now.  BF or FF, some babies just aren't ready for a 4-hour routine at 4mos.  If she's not getting enough to eat during the day, she'll definitely be up at night.

[cwolff]

As far as bedtimes, it depends on when her last nap was.  If she wakes up from her nap earlier then 4:30pm, I try to have her in bed between 6 and 6:30pm.  But yesterday, she woke from her nap at 5:15pm, so I put her to bed at 7:15pm.  My DH thinks we put her to bed too early, but that's only because he wants to spend more time with her.  We both know she's tired by the time she goes to bed.  And yes she does get distracted sometimes during feeding if she's not too hungry, so I turn the tv off, and no noise.  Also, as far as the paci goes when she wakes up in the morning, she usually coo's for a bit and falls back to sleep.  She'll do this a few times before she will whine for me.  This morning, it happened at 6am instead of 5am.  I did give her the paci and she went back to sleep for an hour.  Unfortunately, she's way past the point of no return with the paci.  I'd have to do major pu/pd to wean her off of it.  I've thought about it, but DH is no help, and we're going on a trip tomorrow.  Argh.

[dkjokisch]

7pm is a perfectly reasonable bedtime.  When you get back from your trip, why don't you post your daily routine, and I'll see if I can't come up with some ideas.  Just make sure to PM me so I see it.